I have been trying out some bolts that I bought from Mattias Hellöre. Mattias Hellöre is a regular here and has made some interesting and special parts for people.

The original Ax Lightness bolts that are included with each brakeset do a good job at securing a steel brake cable but they need some special work to hold a Powercorz cable. You have to drill out the hole that the cable fits through and do a little dremel work so that the cylindrical part has a better bite. Then you tie a knot at the bottom of the cylindrical part so that the Powercordz does not get sucked into the little cylindrical part. It is not a very elegant solution so people look for aftermarket bolts. BTP made a few of them and still has them listed on their web site, in fact they are still listed as “New”. Good luck buying them, I am not sure what kind of things they are making, but $20 bolts is not one of them.

Mattias Hellöre came up with his solution. It does not have the grub screw like the BTP part but it has a raised edge so that the bolt does not slip out of the brake. I have never had a bolt slip out while riding but very rarely it can happen when traveling. I think this is a nice feature.

I spent some time thinking about the best way to tie the knot that would secure the cable and what I came up with is called an Arbor Knot. What I did first was smooth out the openings on the bolt. Mattias has already machined them a little but I wanted to make sure that the cable would not be cut by the corner where the Powercordz cable comes out of the bolt at a sharp angle.

I was out in California riding the Levi Gran Fondo and it really put everyone’s brakes to the test. The descent down Kings Ridge is a real pad burner and at times hits 20% for a while with something like 1,600 ft of descent.

The Arbor Knot tightened up just like it is supposed to and I have included a picture.

Bolts? Where are they? I see only a cable tied in a knot. Better not have that come loose in a fast decent, then again, ships have managed sailing the seven seas over the past thousands of years with ropes that have knots, so it's probably safe enough on a brake. Well done, Swedes (and non-Swede)!

Although I'd be concerned about that particular brand of brake.

_________________“I always find it amazing that a material can actually sell a product when it’s really the engineering that creates and dictates how well that material will behave or perform.” — Chuck Teixeira

If the Arbor Knot is so strong, and it looks like it is, why couldn't you just tie the knot on the underside of the barrel-bolt and just have the Powercord(z) pass through once?

I'm asking because those of us with the Planet-X / Featherlite type brakes have a similar mechanism for cable pull on the brake, but it is not as wide of an opening on the AX Lightness, so the cord can only pass through once. Why not just tie the knot at the bottom beneath the bolt and call it a day? Will the cord slip loose?

I have Planet x brakes on my trek . I use the KCNC teflon cables they weigh 14grms so not to bad. To use powercordz prendrefeu and myself would need someone out there to make a new part of the brake so we could use powercordz . Mattias Hellöre could you help? . A small carbon section would be awesome and drop the weight some more .

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